Former Miami City Manager Emilio González has apparently found a new position on the long-running battle over the Virginia Key marina.
Unfortunately for González, his old position is preserved in black and white.
Today, González is supporting the side of longtime Rickenbacker Marina operator Aabad Melwani in the fight over the future of the City-owned waterfront property.
But when González was actually responsible for running the City of Miami, his administration was trying to evict Melwani and move the marina process forward after years of challenges and delays involving the incumbent operator.
That is more than a change in tone. It is a political 180 that deserves an explanation.
“This has gone long enough”
In 2019, Rickenbacker Marina Inc., whose principal is Aabad Melwani, sued the City of Miami while González was city manager.
The Real Deal reported on June 24, 2019, that the incumbent operator had gone to court in what the publication described as a legal maneuver “to try to preempt eviction by the city.”
The lawsuit came after Miami’s real estate department warned Rickenbacker Marina that the City could terminate its month-to-month arrangement and remove the company from the property in a dispute over additional rent payments.
The Real Deal reported that Melwani declined to comment at the time.
This wasn’t some minor dispute occurring outside González’s administration. It was part of the same prolonged marina battle that González himself eventually said had gone on far too long.
By September 2019, his frustration was public.
“I’d be remiss if I did not state on the record on behalf of the administration that I believe — and Commissioner Hardemon said it best — this has gone long enough: 17 deferrals, three or four court dates, two RFPs,” González told the Miami City Commission, according to Miami Today.
Then he said something even more remarkable in light of his position today:
“We’re looking silly here.”
González made clear that he would implement whatever decision commissioners ultimately made. But he also explicitly stated his administration’s position:
“We equally strongly believe that we should move forward with this.”
Move forward.
Not start over. Not preserve the status quo. Not reward another round of litigation and delay.
Move forward.
So what changed?
Seven years later, Miami voters are finally being given the opportunity to decide the issue that González complained had already taken too long in 2019.
Yet González is now supporting the opposite side of that fight.
That is the hypocrisy.
The incumbent marina interests didn’t suddenly appear after González left City Hall. He knew who they were. He knew the history. He knew about the procurement fights. He knew about the lawsuits.
He was the city manager when Melwani’s Rickenbacker Marina sued the City while fighting efforts to remove it.
And he was the city manager who publicly said the delays had gone on long enough.
The historical record has only grown since then. Courts subsequently examined the procurement controversy, and the litigation eventually resulted in the Virginia Key LLC proposal being ordered forward to voters. In 2026, the City Commission placed the question on the November ballot following that litigation.
So González should answer a very simple question:
What changed?
If he believed Miami looked “silly” after 17 deferrals, several court dates and two RFPs in 2019, what does he think about the additional years of litigation and delay that followed?
And if his administration “strongly” believed the City should move forward then, why is he now supporting the side seeking to stop the proposal today?
A difficult political year
The reversal comes less than a year after González suffered a decisive defeat in his campaign for Miami mayor.
Despite receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement, González lost the December 2025 runoff to Eileen Higgins by nearly 20 percentage points.
The result generated criticism even within Republican political circles.
“For the president to weigh in on a local race like this and to lose is embarrassing,” Republican political consultant Mike Madrid told Governing after the election.
That criticism concerned the mayoral election, not the Virginia Key marina dispute. But González’s reemergence in another major City of Miami political fight inevitably raises questions about why he would choose an issue on which his own record as city manager is so well documented.
Local Republican political consultants should be asking the same question.
Why, after a bruising mayoral defeat, would González insert himself into a controversy where his current position appears so difficult to reconcile with his own words and actions in office?
González should explain the reversal
People change their minds. Public officials can reconsider old positions when circumstances change.
But when they do, they should explain why.
González doesn’t have the luxury of pretending the history of Virginia Key began in 2026.
His administration was there.
He was there.
When the incumbent marina operator fought the City, González was city manager. When the process dragged through repeated deferrals and court fights, González was city manager. And when he thought enough was enough, González put his position on the public record.
“This has gone long enough,” he said.
Seven years later, those may be the most relevant words Emilio González ever spoke about Virginia Key.
Miami voters deserve to know why he apparently no longer believes the
